Accelerators have changed how early startups grow and learn at the beginning of their life cycles. Come hear some of the learnings, both good and bad, that come out of growing a company with a group of other like minded entrepreneurs.

Keynote Speaker

What We Can Learn from Telling a Great Story

Everything about user experience is making things into a good story, from figuring out the product offering to pitching ideas to making visual decisions. UX people tend to think in abstract structures (frameworks, objects, methods), but your success or failure in getting something good done depends more on putting the ideas into a narrative that grabs people and engages their needs and desires. We’ll look at what that might mean for some famous products as case-studies, and some tools to help you tell your stories.

Accelerators have changed how early startups grow and learn at the beginning of their life cycles. Come hear some of the learnings, both good and bad, that come out of growing a company with a group of other like minded entrepreneurs.

Everything about user experience is making things into a good story, from figuring out the product offering to pitching ideas to making visual decisions. UX people tend to think in abstract structures (frameworks, objects, methods), but your success or failure in getting something good done depends more on putting the ideas into a narrative that grabs people and engages their needs and desires. We’ll look at what that might mean for some famous products as case-studies, and some tools to help you tell your stories.

What We Can Learn from the Connected Objects Around Us

It’s time to start thinking of user experiences as ecosystems: where a variety of connected devices and GUIs work together, greater than the sum of their individual parts. As the vision of ubiquitous computing becomes real, we as experience designers must anticipate how to provide meaningful and intuitive interactions with the connected objects around us.

What We Can Learn from Graphic Design

As the industry of user experience rapidly changes each discipline needs to adapt and evolve with it. User experience design has moved from static to interactive, and now is being distributed across user touch points, devices, and platforms. Visual and interaction design disciplines are working more closely and collaboratively in order to solve design problems. Branding and visual language are no longer the logo in the top left corner. Join me for a re-introduction of the theories and practice behind the graphic design discipline and discussion about the the future of collaboration in teams of user experience designers.

What We Can Learn from a Salesperson

Believe it or not, if you’re a designer you’re a salesperson. Whether you’re at a design agency, a start-up, or a big company, you sell solutions to problems. As designers increasingly take on the role of innovators and entrepreneurs, how you sell is equally as important as what you sell. We’ll explore the components of a successful pitch, how to use improv to deepen your persuasive power, and how to know your audience so that your story (what you’re “selling”) becomes personal and purposeful.

What We Can Learn from Change

Whether you are transitioning from print to digital, or desktop to mobile: change is the only constant. A look at approaching digital media experiences for news, magazines, and video; how we can bridge traditional storytelling techniques in new non-traditial formats.

What We Can Learn from a Rule-Breaker

Great design offers new ways of perceiving and interpreting the world around us. And great design ideas that change the world can be the product of risk taking, of breaking the rules and choosing to not “play it safe.” Rule Breakers are change agents who shape a more liberating reality. Brand evolution can be the product of turning the status quo upside down, doing the unexpected and unconventional, and forging methodologies that defy and redefine limits. The strategic benefits of rule breaking are realized across the design industry, the internal and external business environment, society, and the overall user experience. Join us as we learn how implementing rule-breaking processes can facilitate managing cultural expectations in a global setting, help manage failures and aspirations, guide entrepreneurship and frugal innovation, and enhance business and client relationships.

What We Can Learn from a Filmmaker

The job title “UX Designer” has become some warped that it no longer means anything. In this session, we’ll consider the role of a film director as a potential analog. A film director doesn’t (necessarily) do anything — all of the execution is carried out by specific craftspeople. The job of the director is to orchestrate these activities in order to deliver a singular vision. A director likely came up through a specific craft (writing, acting, editing, cinematography), but through experience and vision, has come to lead across all of these functions. Our community needs a similar role, coordinating the the specific crafts of interaction design, information architecture, and visual design, and leading that team toward great outcomes.

What We Can Learn from Rock Stars

The UX Discipline is leaving the library. In today’s world, experience is our greatest form of communication. As we embark on this adventure of digital and real-world experience design, we will need to know more than metadata. Rock stars move us in droves on a primal level. Let’s talk about just what rock stars have been building into their songs, antics, stage shows, and personas that can make us better designers.

Session info coming soon.

What We Can Learn from Bad Remodels

We learn more from our mistakes than from our successes. So let’s take a look at some really bad designs and find the lessons. Bad design is bad design. Be it a hacky website, Mangyongdae Fun Fair, the tragically horrible North Korean theme park or a McMansion on a postage-stamp-sized lot, we can look at the choices designers make that lead them in the wrong direction and attempt to avoid their pitfalls.

Context Design: What We Can Learn from a Coffee Shop, a Grocer, and a Dictionary

As human beings, we’re constantly putting the world around us into context – whether it’s forgiving someone who was late because the train got delayed or knowing where to find the cream and sugar in a coffee shop, a grocer or a dictionary. Unfortunately, digital lags in this area — we spend more time discussing the dimensions of the device we’re designing for than the user and the context they (and their device) are in. Learn how to apply geographic, social and emotional context from offline examples into your digital strategy and design.

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0ashli.lewishttp://www.redesignconference.com/?p=7742012-10-29T08:22:09Z2012-08-20T06:16:05ZCreativity for a Moving World

Given the ever changing, ever expanding context of the world and our industry – How does creativity help businesses to create, grow and transform themselves to be able to thrive in a moving world?

– As Creatives what is our most effective role and how do we create brands fit for a Moving World?
– How can creativity help connect people to brands and brands to people?
– What are clients really looking for?
– Should we be multidisciplinary in our approach or dedicated to a single craft?
– Where should the focus of our creativity be – story telling, rigorous design systems, embedding internally, taking to market?
– Are the traditional agency models dead?
– How do we keep a creative thread through all communications?
– What skills does a Creative need to thrive in the Moving World?

Given the ever changing, ever expanding context of the world and our industry – How does creativity help businesses to create, grow and transform themselves to be able to thrive in a moving world?

– As Creatives what is our most effective role and how do we create brands fit for a Moving World?

– How can creativity help connect people to brands and brands to people?

– What are clients really looking for?

– Should we be multidisciplinary in our approach or dedicated to a single craft?

– Where should the focus of our creativity be – story telling, rigorous design systems, embedding internally, taking to market?

– Are the traditional agency models dead?

– How do we keep a creative thread through all communications?

– What skills does a Creative need to thrive in the Moving World?

The Return of Beauty

Recently, a lot of conversations about design have focused on simplicity, intuitive ease of use, and utility. Let’s talk about the what beauty is and how it can make products more relevant and satisfying to people.

Timelessness in the age of #trending

Timeless design in an age where communication tools and platforms are constantly updating and changing.

We Are Storytellers

Communicating necessary information in emotionally compelling ways is part of our role as designers. The stories we write are what gets under the skin of our audiences; it’s what connects people to products or companies. Whether its defining a brand, showing the function of a product or revealing the concept of a television show, the designer’s role in telling and distilling stories is critical and evolving.

In this session we will talk about the power of story in select motion design pieces and discuss what the role of design was. What qualifies a design piece vs a short film? We will also talk about how social media adds new dimensions to our stories because the audience is invited to help write them. The opportunities are expanding, the mediums are changing and our roles and capabilities must rise to the occasion.

Confessions of a control freak:
How I learned to stop worrying and love the question

Questioning and curiosity are both essential parts of creativity. There must be a problem to solve.

There must be a muse – something. Defining what that is involves questioning. Asking lots of why’s at the beginning of a project. Asking questions throughout and when you think you’ve solved it asking even more questions. The longer I work, the more I realize that I don’t know the answer and I’m really becoming ok with that. The only thing that is certain is that change is a constant so the better you are equipped to adapt, grow and question the better you’ll be at this thing we call design.

Michelle DoughertyMove Me

How to craft your story so it doesn’t just become wallpaper, it turns people on.

Fuzzy Magic

Using prototyping to facilitate communication.

It is not the typeface that makes a design, it’s the designer that uses the typeface

As someone that loves typography, this is a difficult statement to swallow. I believe a good designer can communicate any concept with any typeface. By eliminating automated typeface options, you can focus on the idea instead of figuring out which of the billion computerized typefaces to choose from, and the design inevitably becomes stronger as a result.

What Happens when Everything is Connected to Everything

Digital technology and the social web have collapsed the practice (or at least the impact) of brand identity development, advertising, and user-experience design into a creative singularity. Notes on managing an agile design process to keep up.

Leland Maschmeyer Design in a Peer-to-Peer World

In a world where peer-to-peer models are changing everything from medical research to running shoes and banks to cars, how does it change design?

When I’m Happy, The Client’s Happy

How following your gut can benefit your client in the end, while scaring/frustrating/amazing them in the process.

Kate McCaggWhat John Hughes films can teach us about the creative director/developer relationship

Today, bringing ideas to life takes more than just a creative team and a director. We have to be able to convince developers to get as excited about our ideas as we are if we want the work to stand out. These are the things you need to know about getting what you need from this unique breed.

Joan RaspoThe Shout Heard Round the World

How to craft the identity of your brand within the cacophony of noise we call: social media. How can we earn the attention of the audience we want? One Voice. Loud, Strong and Confident.

I Laughed, I Cried, I Remembered: How Humor, Emotion and Wit make for Memorable Branding.”

Note – This session is limited to 30 attendees. We will post when this session is full.

The Wilco Loft design exploration will be a RE:DESIGN conference session at the loft recording studio of American music legends Wilco. The session conversation will examine the topic of place as inspiration. The themes of Chicago, home, and what that place is are frequently explored in Wilco’s music. As a result, Chicago is a prominent ingredient and source of inspiration in much of the graphic design for Wilco.

Generously opening their working home to our visit, Wilco provides session attendees a look into the very place where some of their music has been conceived, developed, produced and recorded. The loft houses a vast collection of instruments, and ... Read More »]]>

Note – This session is limited to 30 attendees. We will post when this session is full.

The Wilco Loft design exploration will be a RE:DESIGN conference session at the loft recording studio of American music legends Wilco. The session conversation will examine the topic of place as inspiration. The themes of Chicago, home, and what that place is are frequently explored in Wilco’s music. As a result, Chicago is a prominent ingredient and source of inspiration in much of the graphic design for Wilco.

Generously opening their working home to our visit, Wilco provides session attendees a look into the very place where some of their music has been conceived, developed, produced and recorded. The loft houses a vast collection of instruments, and is a veritable museum of tools used by the band.

The session will investigate some of the band’s art with one of their managers, Benjamin Levin, and graphic designer Lawrence Azerrad, who has developed art with Wilco’s leader Jeff Tweedy for the last 15 years. The session concludes with an open conversation on place as inspiration and how a specific site can affect one’s work.

To participate in the session, attendees have been asked by Wilco to create an artwork gratis for possible use by the band in the future.

John BielenbergWhen Wrong Is Right

Thinking Wrong can help pull us out of the ruts of the status quo and towards a positive sustainable future. In this session, John utilizes the tools he uses with organizations and their people find the courage and sense of humor to consider whole new “wrong” ways of bringing their stories, ideas and innovations out into the world.

Jennifer ChongMy Antidote to Inspiration Overload

From blogs to Pinterest to Instagram, we are inundated with images on a daily basis. While these can serve as valuable sources of inspiration, sometimes the overabundance does more harm than good. Find yourself in the real world and get re-inspired again.

Shannon DowneyAn Unlikely Muse: How a little absurdity can go a long way

Renata GrawThinking About Thinking

A discussion about the process of working and how inspiration can come from how we approach things.

Dawn HancockThe Journey From Junk Mail To Inspiration

How being inspired made me totally depressed and my journey out of it.

Colleen HillBeyond The Studio: The Importance of Community

Ideas are not born in a vacuum. Rather, it is through exposure to other ideas, concepts and, most importantly, people that ideas flourish. Our communities foster and sustain these new ideas, and play a pivotal role in the advancement of creativity. As online forums are traded for physical gatherings, how we define community is changing. In this talk we’ll explore the symbiotic relationship between designers and their surroundings, and illustrate how community impacts design as much as designers impact their communities.

Jason KatzStory

Integrating the concept of story into your work.

Wally KrantzIn The Eye Of The Beholder: Inspiration from the Ubiquitous

In this session, Wally Krantz of The Brand Union will discuss how perpetual picture-taking inspires him by looking outside of the things that are intentionally well-designed and how color, texture, letters, objects, context, connections and disconnections can make the ubiquitous unique. Every day he takes pictures of things that could be beautiful, ugly, exciting, or banal. His observations of these images become a way of discussing with designers and clients why we might notice certain things and why the resonate with us.

Mike McQuadeTrading Inspiration For Investigation

Great ideas are found not imagined. A discussion about using research to stimulate inspiration.

Brian SingerEngage Through Inspiration

Brian Singer will present “Engage Through Inspiration.” Quote from previous audience member: “I thought you were someone’s assistant all week. Then you pop up on the stage and present this mind-blowing profound thoughtful heart wrenching thing! Geez, man. I literally had to check myself to not start blubbering like a baby.”

John StevensonIf it isn’t fun, why are you still doing it?

Filmmaker John Stevenson will lead a hands-on session where groups of attendees will brainstorm a movie/story.

Joe StewartStarting From Scratch: Finding Inspiration in a Brand New Medium

Inspiration is critical to creativity, but with so few years of digital design to draw on, where should designers working in this young medium look for new ideas? Joe Stewart, Global Creative Director at digital design agency Huge, will share the lessons he has learned from his own experiences in the battle to stay inspired and create great work in a brand new medium.

Following daily rituals of observation using practical tools allows for a heightened ability to capture things that otherwise might have gone unnoticed. When those items are aggregated over weeks and months, new unseen patterns emerge. Creating a visual library based on new themes and topics allows for a rich pattern of inspiration. Instead of waiting for the inspired moment to come, these processes allow for someone to create their own unknown inspiration.

David Usui and Ben WuTaking Time: The value of slowing down in professional and personal work

We’re exposed to more content than at any time in history. And yet, the amount of time we have to consume it isn’t increasing. As consumers and creators we’re especially affected by this. In this presentation we’ll explore the notion of catering to short attention spans and what happens when you assume the opposite when creating your work.

Part 1: The Interface ParenthesisIn this talk we’ll discuss the state of the art of a particular handful of technologies and trends that are happening in the industry. These technologies are farther along than most folks think, and are just waiting to get distributed and put together. When they do, it’ll spell a sea-change for how humanity interfaces technology.

Part 2: The Next NextIf the mini-singularity described in The Interface Parenthesis happens, what will technology need? What will the practice of interaction design look like? How will designers work with others? What kinds of work product will we deliver? What can we do now to get ahead of that curve? Join this conversation to discuss what the future might look like for interaction and user experience design.

Part 1: The Interface ParenthesisIn this talk we’ll discuss the state of the art of a particular handful of technologies and trends that are happening in the industry. These technologies are farther along than most folks think, and are just waiting to get distributed and put together. When they do, it’ll spell a sea-change for how humanity interfaces technology.

Part 2: The Next NextIf the mini-singularity described in The Interface Parenthesis happens, what will technology need? What will the practice of interaction design look like? How will designers work with others? What kinds of work product will we deliver? What can we do now to get ahead of that curve? Join this conversation to discuss what the future might look like for interaction and user experience design.

Dan AlbrittonYour Phone is Your Controller

This session will discuss using advanced capabilities of mobile devices as interfaces to other systems. From the Apple Remote iPhone app, to the GotoMyPC iPhone app, to the PadRacer iPhone controlled racing game, increasingly phones are being used as controllers of all types of things aside from the phone itself. Let’s discuss what’s out there in the world now, and what needs to be invented. What infrastructure problems can we as UX designers ameliorate, and what new interfaces challenges are our specific responsibility to address? Are there emerging UX standards for touch screen devices at all? What about the varying operating systems and form factors of the controllers, in addition to the variety of the devices being controlled. The “Minority Report” future controller is probably already in your pocket, we just need to determine how it works!

Simona Brusa PasquéThe Designer Co-Founder: A Freak of Nature or the Next Logical Mutation?

A new breed of designer-entrepreneurs is emerging from successful startups. Do you have the mutant gene? What is it? Do you want it?

In the wake of Steve Jobs’s example, design is finally getting a spot in the sun as a bottom line differentiation factor. For the first time, we hear about successful start ups with designer co-founders (Pinterest, Path, YouTube, Tumblr, Flickr to name a few). It looks like something in the industry has shifted, designers are the new hotness and finally have a shot at positions in which they can make high level decisions.

What has changed in Silicon Valley? Is this just another fad?
Who are these designer co-founders?
How many breeds are there? Are you made to be one?
Can you step up to the challenge? What skills do you need?
What new knowledge do you need to acquire?

Yu Shan ChuangLean vs. Team

A session discussing how the UX team has morphed from large teams towards leaner teams of sometimes one UX designer. How do we see this changing in the next ten years and what it means for us as UX managers and team members?

Ben ClemensDesigning to Lose Control

Emotional connections and user engagement in design are the best indicators of success. The most engaging product experiences today are apps or services that: are simple enough to use without directions, have obvious value, and (most importantly) feel like a tool that user can bend to their own purposes. UX design in this context is about losing control, carefully designing scaffolds for others to build upon. But where will this go next? Are these apps only valuable in the hothouse Apple App Store, or will web apps (or TV apps) eventually be a bigger market? How does one design a product that feels like a tool for users, works in different devices and contexts, and feels delightful and satisfying to use, anyway? Some answers will be attempted.

Nate ClintonObfuscation by Design

Good design is as much about what is kept hidden as what is revealed. Finding the right balance on that continuum can be tricky, and depends on the often competing goals of simplicity and control. In this session we will explore this question, discuss good and bad reasons to keep users in the dark, and talk about the new challenges designers face as the spotlight turns to who gets to keep secrets in our increasingly networked world.

Mark ColeranArtifacts and Assumptions

Without really understanding and looking hard at the way we design and the things others have created before us, the decisions we make about the problems we are solving and things we design, can end up more like refined reflections of the past, than innovative steps forward.

Are there different ways we can think about our design approach and starting points, that give us a better understanding of the stacked assumptions, biases and artifacts that we are trying to use as foundations for what comes next?

Bradford CrossModernist Graphics, Futurist Interactions.

The best graphic designers in the world could not get the results from digital that they could with print. Now that we can, we should just ignore second rate digital work and look back to draw inspiration from Swiss print design. Day to day interaction design has to deal with platform heterogeneity and leverage each platforms’ unique interactions – touch on mobile, or hover on devices that have a mouse. Relics of the past like the menu bar hog space on mobile and were probably never a good idea on the desktop. But rather than usher in a skeuomorphic shitshow a la Apple with pixel-wasting faux wood bookshelves, we should push ourselves to come up with novel new interactions that are both natural to people and natural to the platform.

Andrew CrowDesigning for Context

As designers take on new problems of convergence and ubiquity, we find ourselves facing new challenges. The products and services we create are accessed through multiple devices, different channels and an even wider audience. How do we accommodate the context of use?

Whether you design mobile apps, services or web experiences, you know that people have different needs and desires. Those issues are complicated further by a landscape of technology they encounter daily.

This table discussion will highlight these new challenges and discuss solutions based on our collective design experience. Topics include:

What should you be aware of when designing a product or service for use in various locations and environments?

How does motion and distraction affect interaction design decisions? How can your content adapt?

How can time affect the use of your product? Can you provide for casual use vs. urgent need?

In what context will your device be used – home, work, train, airplane? How does the form factor of your device steer your design efforts – screen size, capabilities? How does input methods factor in – hands, fingers, voice?

People bring their own context to your product. Have you considered discoverable interfaces, content written for the situation?

What happens in an ecosystem? How do other products affect yours?

How does social and cultural context play into the strategy of your design?

Nadya DirekovaGame Mechanics: Designing for User Engagement

How can you use game mechanics in your next project? Game mechanics have added awesome new tools to UX design and strategy. We’ll discuss how you can craft your user engagement strategy using patterns such as as points, progression and rewards schedules.

What are the most useful game mechanics?

How to plan your user engagement strategy by applying game mechanics and game thinking?

Data may well be the new oil but, as with any natural resource, extracting real value from it is difficult.

In one form or another, data has always been an important part of interaction design. But as we look to the future of our practice, it seems as if we need to better understand the implications of data for the people we design for.

And not just data on a small, personal scale, but vast stores of data that contain information that spans many areas of business, from healthcare and financial services to retail to consumer products.

This session will be a group discussion about the implications of “big data” for interaction design. We will aim to discuss questions such as:

What is the real value of big data?

How can data become the new material for product and service innovation?

What is the context in which ‘big data’ can be delivered and consumed?

Which strategies can companies deploy to turn data into an asset rather than a liability?

Marisa GallagherUX & Brand Strategy: Final Frontier or Foolish Folly

UX has established it’s role in software design first, then is finding its firm footing in product and service design.
But, isn’t there more experience design can add? Shouldn’t we contribute to the company’s larger strategy, perhaps even its most thoughtfully designed construct: its brand?

Do we have obligation to do this, as an advocate of the user (and perceptive reconciler of business needs and technological boundaries?)

Where do we get hung up when we enter into this conversation?

What do we need to give up in order to take this on?

Or is there a way to seamlessly fuse our past, present, and future — all for the benefit of the user and brand?

Jonathan KormanUX Design In The Organization

More and more companies have started adding UX designers to their product and service development organizations, but few have explored all that implies. Hiring the best designers in the world doesn’t do much good if they cannot do their best work, do not fit into the development process, or do not influence strategic product decisions. Despite the importance of this relationship between design and the organization, designers generally do a poor job of discussing the challenge, either ignoring it or exhibiting a nutzererfahrung über alles hubris. We will discuss a richer picture of design well-integrated into the organization.

Sarah MurgelChanging the World: A Designer’s Role in Organizational (and World) Politics

There is no question that innovation and great ideas come out of the collaborative minds of great designers. How many of those ideas see the light of day? Why aren’t they always embraced by our clients? And of those that make it into the world, how often do we see experiences abandoned or serving unintentional needs?

As change agents, this conversation will discuss the role of the designer, and the design process, in areas such as organizational change management, to the broader areas of using the design process to inform policy and global change.

John NackThe Future of Creation

Everyone’s a maker; everyone’s a sharer. Great design software costs a buck. When things are common, how do we keep them special? Let’s talk about what it all means to designers & their tools.

Scott NazarianThe city and the City: a long view on experience and interaction design in smart urban environments

In many ways, the “smart” city is already here: public wifi, location-based services and embedded digital display systems embodying a few of the most present, if not visible, harbingers. And there are deeper evolutions afoot: energy and data infrastructures are becoming more complex and at the same time more seamlessly integrated into the material and structural disposition of the world about. What is the essential character of these systems as they grow into the future?

One of my favorite philosopher-scientists, Paul Dourish, once said that “increasingly, the very world itself has become an interface to computation… and yet, that interface is nowhere near as conversational as it might be”. While we may instrument the built world with the technologies of interaction, the really powerful design narrative here is around *lived* human experience.

If ‘cities’ are already a somewhat alienating proposition, what does their hyper-saturation with IT augur for the future generations inhabiting them? If architecture and structural engineering would take the evolution of materiality and space in hand, then it seems that interaction designers and their cohorts must take the long view on human-computer interactions with regard to the “humane” lived experience in those new environments.

Albert PoonWelcome to the Post-PC Era

The age of desktop being the primary platform for digital experiences is over. Yes, there are hundreds of millions of traditional PCs with web browsers. They will not disappear. But even the most cursory look at sales numbers should make clear that the era of the big screen-keyboard-mouse digital experience is waning.

Heavily inspired by Richard Bank’s 2011 publication The Future of Looking Back, we will explore potential long-term sentimental uses for the ever-increasing volume of data each of us generate, and conceptualize about interfaces that could display, make sense of and encourage reflection on individual lives using that data. Can we paint holistic views of people with data (we’ve got a start on holograms), and what parts of their data should (or should not) be included? How much data is needed before their personality traits become visible?

Varying privacy rules across the globe, awareness of and access to passively collected data, and the distributed nature of data storage across competing providers all pose challenges. The atrophy of online services where we actively store data and transportability of “your” data from those services is a challenge all its own.

Faded photographs and personal artifacts of the physical world are no longer the only items bequeathed or inherited. It’s common to receive mostly uncurated digital artifacts, online accounts, and hard drives brimming with photos, video, docs, downloads, a digital music collection, cached browser histories and log files. Each will tell a story about the owner. Can systems be built to help us pre-curate our digital detritus and even provide tailored collections to others?

What meaning will your information and digital objects hold for people looking back on a lifetime of data, assuming they will be able to access it at all? What interface would you want them to use, and how curated would you want it to be? But, more importantly, who’s going to manage your Facebook account? We’ll do a group design challenge, and probably raise a lot more questions than we can answer in this session. While this is an emotionally evocative topic, this conversation will have a light and positive tone.